creative technology

Wiimote mouse

Proof of concept that a Nintendo wii remote (wiimote) can be used as a mouse cursor by pointing it at the screen. In fact, more than one mouse can be used at the same time. This demo shows two wiimotes being used.

How it works is that the wiimote infrared camera picks up the light from an array of infrared LEDs on the bar in front of the screen and sends out the data via Bluetooth to a PC. The wiimote tracks the brightest four infrared spots and sends their x-y coordinates as well as brightness. A free software downloadable from the web called GlovePIE uses the data to emulate the wiimote as a mouse cursor on the screen. GlovePIE can also send the data out to your own application (e.g. Flash) via the Open Sound Control protocol.

Although it works, for this method, note that GlovePIE is no longer supported, the wiimote model is an old model no longer in production since 2011, and that the bluetooth adaptor has to have a HID profile used together with Toshiba’s bluetooth stack.